NE North Dakota News

The Minot State University Development Foundation has set a new record, raising over $400,000 in just 24 hours during its annual Giving Day. This marks the second time in three years that the foundation has achieved a record-setting event.

On April 10, donor contributions and matching funds totaled $427,558 from 1,752 donors. This amount surpasses the previous high of $390,811 recorded in 2022. It is also the third consecutive year that more than $350,000 has been raised on Giving Day.

"MSU Giving Day is all about supporting the university and our students," said Rick Hedberg, vice president for advancement and executive director of the MSU Development Foundation. "Our donors, faculty and staff, and friends participated in a big way, and they have made a strong statement that MSU and its students are important to them. We are all so appreciative of the support. Every dollar raised on Giving Day makes a difference."

The total number of gifts received by the Development Foundation ranks as the second-highest in Giving Day history. Contributions came from 37 states with North Dakota accounting for 879 donations. These funds supported 73 projects including various scholarship endowments and campus initiatives.

Throughout the day, several challenges were sponsored by the Development Foundation to encourage participation. The top category for dollars raised was MSU’s Have Another Passion category which focused mainly on individual scholarship endowments not listed as feature endowments. The most successful project was MSU’s Summer Theatre sound system project which collected $24,926 from 99 donors. Following closely was Minot State women’s hockey's jersey fund with $17,525 from 81 donors.

In an academic challenge based on total donors, communication sciences and disorders' portable ultrasound emerged as the top project with support from 111 donors while nursing's IV sleeves had backing from 98 contributors. In athletics, MSU softball narrowly surpassed women’s hockey with a total of 87 donors.

"I want to extend a gracious thank you to our campus for their support of Giving Day," added Hedberg. "Virtually our entire campus is involved in some form with Giving Day either making a gift or promoting the day across various social media platforms. It's very important to our success."

Minot State University is committed to excellence through rigorous academics and community engagement supported by active learning environments and vibrant campus life.